Admissions policy

Introduction

Walkwood Church of England Middle School is an independent state funded academy for pupils in Year 5 through to Year 8. The Governing Body is the admissions authority with powers to decide the arrangements for admitting pupils including the admissions criteria. Pupils will be admitted at the age of 9 (Year 5) without reference to ability or aptitude using the criteria below. The Published Admission Number for entry in Year 5 in September 2018 is 168. However, the school can have the capacity to admit 180 pupils and the Governing Body will allow this number to be the admissions ceiling if there is appropriate demand for places. Admission to Walkwood Church of England Middle School is not dependent on any “voluntary” contribution.

The Policy should be read in conjunction with Worcestershire County Council's Information for Parents Book on Admissions and Transfers to Schools 2018-19 and is available to view online at: www.worcestershire.gov.uk/schooladmissions

Procedure

All applications submitted to the home Local Authority naming Walkwood Church of England Middle School in any position of preference will be forwarded to the school. The Governing Body will rank all applications against the published Admissions Criteria according to the information given by parents/carers on application forms.

Applications will be sorted in descending order according to the Oversubscription Criteria below. With up to 168 places available (or a ceiling of 180), this number will be reached at varying levels each year, depending on the number and nature of applications received.

The deadline for receipt of applications published by the Local Authority must be adhered to and applications received after this date will be at a disadvantage in the event of oversubscription.

Offers of Places

The school will rank all applications received by the deadline in order of priority as described below. The names of applicants to whom places could be offered will then be provided to the Local Authority who, according to the Co-ordinated Scheme, will make offers. The offer of a place will be a single offer to you of a place at the school for which your child ranks highest, where a place is available; if it is possible to make a potential offer at more than one school, then the final offer will be for the school identified as your higher preference. If you have named Walkwood as one of your preferences but have not been offered a place, you have a right to appeal within fourteen days of the date of the Local Authority’s notification. Walkwood Church of England Middle School has a form on which this appeal can be submitted.

Parents/carers must reply to the offer letter as soon as possible, indicating whether they are accepting the place (see below for circumstances where an offer may be withdrawn).

Firm offers will be made by the home Local Authority on the published date. Offers will not be made by Walkwood Church of England Middle School and parents/carers should not contact the school directly if they have not received an offer letter.

Oversubscription criteria

The purpose of the published oversubscription criteria is to give everyone a fair opportunity to apply for a place at the school. The Governors’ Admissions Committee takes considerable time and the utmost care to ensure that the system is applied fairly.

Where there are more applications than places, pupils will be offered places in the following order of priority (for definitions of the words in bold, see the section below on Definitions):

1. Relevant "looked after" and “previously looked after” children.

2. Children who have a sibling currently attending Walkwood Church of England Middle School. In order to qualify for a place on the grounds of a sibling attending the school, the sibling must be attending the school at the time of intended admission.

3. Children of staff employed for at least two years or recruited to meet a skills shortage.

4. Other children.

Within each criterion priority will be given to those whose home is nearest to Walkwood Church of England Middle School by the shortest straight line distance. The measurement will be taken using the GeoCode Points for each property and the GeoCode point for the school. The Governing Body will utilise the Local Authority software package called Arcview GIS to determine distance. Ordnance Survey supplies the co-ordinates that are used to plot an address within this system. In the event of equi-distance applicants, any place will be allocated by random selection (lottery). Someone totally independent of the Governing Body will supervise this process.

Where there are too many applications from within the first category, applications will be given priority if they meet the conditions of the second category. If any places then still remain, applications will be given priority according to the third category, and so on.

In Year Admissions for all Year Groups

Generally, pupils only transfer from one school to another when there has been a change of home address. For applications to Walkwood Church of England Middle School outside the normal round of admissions (that is, other than for a place in September for Year 5) parents need to:

1) Obtain an application form (CA1), if a resident in Worcestershire, from any of the following sources;